الرئيسية
Iranian diplomatic staff board an IranAir Airbus
aircraft at London's Heathrow Airport before the aircraft departs for
Tehran, Friday Dec. 2, 2011. Roughly two dozen Iranian diplomats and
their dependents are leaving Britain on Friday, expelled by the U.K.
government in retaliation for recent attacks on the British Embassy in
Tehran.(AP Photo) UNITED KINGDOM OUT - NO MAGAZINE - NO SALES
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, AP
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian diplomats expelled from London in
retaliation for attacks on British compounds in Tehran have arrived
home, the official IRNA news agency reports, sealing Iran's most serious
diplomatic rift with the West in decades.
About 150 hard-liners
waiting with flower necklaces were gathered at Tehran's Mehrabad airport
early Saturday to give the roughly two dozen diplomats and their
families a hero's welcome. But the Iranian government, apparently
opposed to any high-profile display that could worsen the fallout, took
the diplomats off unseen from a backdoor, reflecting Iran's own internal
political rifts.
Tuesday's storming of the British Embassy and
residential complex — which the British government alleges was
sanctioned by Tehran's ruling elite — deepened Iran's isolation, which
has grown over the decade-long standoff with the West over its nuclear
program.
Germany, France and the Netherlands have recalled their
ambassadors, and Italy and Spain summoned Iranian envoys to condemn the
attacks.
It amounted to the most serious diplomatic fallout with
the West since the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy after the Islamic
Revolution, and some Iranian political figures have voiced doubts over
whether anything can be gained from escalating the diplomatic battle.
The
obstruction of Saturday's welcome ceremony reflected the disagreements
between hard-liners and the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
which opposed downgrading relations with Britain and condemned the
attack on Britain's embassy.
Iran's relations with Britain have
become increasingly strained in recent months, largely due to tensions
over Tehran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a key component of its
nuclear program. The process is of deep concern internationally because
it can be used to produce material for nuclear warheads in addition to
reactor fuel. Iran insists its program is entirely peaceful.
Along
with the United States and other nations in Europe, Britain has backed
sanctions that have so far failed to push Iran to halt its enrichment
program.
Hard-liners in Iran have said the embassy attack was an
outpouring of the wrath of the Iranian people who believe Britain is a
hostile country seeking to damage and weaken the Islamic Republic.
Mohammad Mohammadian, a representative of Iran's Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, praised the attackers, saying they had targeted
the "epicenter of sedition."
Iran's hard-line constitutional
watchdog, the Guardian Council, approved a parliamentary bill into law
requiring the Iranian government to downgrade relations with Britain.
The government opposed it but said it would carry out the law.
The
diplomatic freeze from Europe, including key trading partner Germany,
further isolates Iran just weeks after a report by the U.N. nuclear
watchdog agency that alleged Iran was making strides toward mastering
critical elements for atomic weapons.
The current breakdown in
relations with the West could embolden hard-liners who want a tougher
stance against the International Atomic Energy Agency, which they accuse
of being manipulated by the U.S. and allies.
Britain's
ambassador to Iran, Dominick Chilcott — now back in Britain — offered
new details about the attacks, saying the experience had been
"frightening."
"We had no idea how it was going to end," he said,
describing how the mob trashed rooms, damaged furniture, scrawled
graffiti and tore up a portrait of Queen Victoria, as staff took shelter
in a secure area of the embassy.
"It felt like very spiteful,
mindless vandalism, but it wasn't quite mindless," Chilcott said. "They
removed anything that was electronic — mobile telephones, personal
computers — anything that might give information about who you were
talking to or what you were doing."
At one point, the intruders
started a fire inside the chancery building, forcing the staff to leave
the safe area, climb down a fire escape and exit the building. A small
number of police escorted them to a building on the edge of the compound
and told them to lie low.
"We turned all the lights out and we sat in the dark and we could hear the noise of the intruders going on around us," he said.
He
said seven staff at a separate residential compound that was also
attacked were seized and "quite roughly handled" by the invaders.
British
Foreign Secretary William Hague has led the accusations that the
rioters had a green light from Iranian authorities, including the
powerful Revolutionary Guard. On Thursday, he said the attacks were
"clearly premeditated" by high-ranking officials.
Iranian
government officials said the storming of the embassy by angry
protesters was unexpected and Iranian police intervened to protect the
British diplomats and get the attackers out of the buildings.
The
demonstrations had been organized by hard-line groups on university
campuses and Islamic seminaries and included denunciations of the latest
sanctions on Iran over its nuclear efforts.
Such major
anti-Western rallies are rarely allowed to occur without official
approval and often include state-backed forces including a paramilitary
group known as the Basij, which is part of the vast security network
controlled by the Revolutionary Guard.
Images broadcast around
the world showed demonstrators tearing down Union Jack flags,
brandishing a looted picture of Queen Elizabeth II and tossing out
looted documents.
The deepening tensions with Britain and others may also trigger further rifts within Iran.
For
months, Iran's ruling system has ordered arrests and intimidation
against political allies of President Ahmadinejad, who has sharply
fallen from favor after challenging decisions by the head of the
theocracy, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Ahmadinejad has
remained silent since the attacks, but his supporters have raised
questions about whether Iran's interests are served by a diplomatic
battle with the West.
___
Associated Press writers David Stringer, Jill Lawless and Cassandra Vinograd in London contributed to this report.